Facebook has agreed a settlement worth $20 million in a class action lawsuit
after it was accused of using the names, profile pictures and photographs of
users without permission.

As part of the settlement, the social networking site distributed an e-mail
notice to users in the United States from its “legalnotice@facebookmail.com”
address over the weekend in a move to avoid having to take the case to
court.

The notice, which many may dismiss as spam, includes information that the user
may be eligible for a proportion of the settlement — worth £12.7 million —
if they appeared in the site’s Sponsored Stories